These Things Shall Pass. Jasper Schalks

Jasper Schalks played a double bill with Elenne May in the very last "living room show" in the building that is now being rebuilt to become a Hudson Bay in Haarlem. During the show, last August, Schalks announced his first EP to be released in the near future. That near turned out to be a half year, but here it is nonetheless. (Read the review of the show in Gather here: https://wonomagazine.blogspot.nl/2017/08/gather-live-25-august-2017-with-jasper.html)

These Things Shall Pass, a tribute to George Harrison's famous album?, is a five song EP. Schalks delves into music typically not Dutch nor European. His musical heart is in the U.S. on the verge where singer-songwriter and country meet each other and become entwined. In short, the sort of music that was inconceivable to me even to have the idea I would ever come to like; when I had Jasper Schalks' age. Something that slowly changed in the second half of the 90s, mainly through The Walkabouts and then more and more singer-songwriters entered my life from the 00s onwards.

On These Things Shall Pass Jasper Schalks basically does everything right. The songs all have that little something that makes a song like this interesting to listen to. They are far enough away from the traditional country song, while using the same sort of instruments and have that bite that put them in your face.In their own modest way they stand there and demand to be listened to. Eg, 'Goodbye In Advance' is a modest song. The harmonica gives it a Dylan vibe, the melody could be a Glenn Campbell song, yet the guitar solo could have been on a Rolling Stones record where Ronnie Wood is tearing up a Stones' country song. Overall Douwe Bob comes through in this song. So there is a pop element in here as well and all that in one song standing in front of me sending all these little signals: I'm worth your time. And it is.

Schalks' voice suits the music he sings. Perhaps it is not 100% perfect, especially when he sings in a lower register. What is does is get the message across and give some flair to the music. The EP is played with a full band behind him, something making the EP very varied.

It starts with just an acoustic guitar. A fiddle joins, then a mandolin before the rhythm section comes in with the singing. 'Delicate' is slowly built up with a perfect harmony female voice by Sophie ter Schure in the chorus and second verse. The song in places as delicate as the lyrics that is all about someone being delicate and fragile.

 'Delicate' sets the pace for These Things Shall Pass. 'All The Lovers' is even more of a ballad. A slow song for all the lovers and everyone else to enjoy. The fiddle plays a solo (Mirte de Graaff), slow and melancholy. Drawing out the notes, adding to the effect of the song. The Eagles were able to excel in a song like this in the Bernie Leadon days. In 2018 Jasper Schalks carries on the tradition proudly.

After 'All The Lovers' the EP makes a turn into a slightly more solid direction with the already mentioned 'Goodbye In Advance'. Electric guitars, including a pedal steel, enter the picture. With 'Anna Please Don't Cry No More' the delicateness returns with the slowest and most delicate song on the EP. It is here that I'm remembered of some of the songs of Rogier Pelgrim.

The solid state returns with the final song. 'You Lead Me Home' holds a dark electric sound when a slide guitar joins the whole. Violin and harmonies are a part of the whole again, but this song is darker and I think the best on the EP. Although it is in tough competition with song 2 and 3. I like this different side Jasper Schalks shows and the balance it offers the EP as a whole. The guitar solo played by Leif de Leeuw brings it all back home.

Summing up, These Things Shall Pass is a very nice introduction to this young singer-songwriter from Amsterdam. Live he showed style, charm and played nice songs. On record these songs are fleshed out and made very interesting to listen to in the confines of the home. A welcome addition to my collection this EP is.

Wo.

You can listen to 'Goodbye In Advance' here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsKzibkxagw

Listen to the WoNoBlog Playlist on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g

Songs From The Land Of Nod. Beechwood

If I had to use only one word for Songs From The Land Of Nod it would be vague. Why? It is as if Beechwood does almost nothing of a lot. The mystery is that it seems to work. Without excelling in anything the trio presents a fine album that explores 60s garage rock and Jesus and Mary Chain fuzz. All with a lightness that suggest the music to disappear in vapours given half the chance. Not to mention the 70s disco clothes the band members are wearing in the cover photo.

There is one thing concrete on Songs From The Land Of Nob. It contains the song that made me realise that a B side of a 45 single can be something special as well. Not straight away when my neighbour and friend Hans gave me his copy of 'Sunny Afternoon' (or sold. I can't remember whether it was 'Street Fighting Man' I got or 'Sunny Afternoon' all those years ago.) On the B side there's a song called 'I'm Not Like Anybody Else'. It took me years to appreciate it like I do up till today. And there it is in the middle of this album.

This is Beechwood's its second album after the self-released 'Trash Glamour' (2014). The band is from NYC in the USA and fans of the NYC punk bands that came up in the second half of the 70s. Not that their music is punk in that sense. It is about the attitude, or so they say. Gordon Lawrence (guitar) and ISA Tineo (drums), accompanied by a, to me unknown, bass player, do not play punk. For that the songs are too melodic and, well, too 60s. What is totally missing is the psychedelic vibe that most bands have these days that are into the 60s. Beechwood is more into the 'Nuggets' side of the 60s. Yet, all is easily floating away, like driftwood, so psychedelia does come to mind before everything is sung and done. Just not in that obvious way of Hammond organs and the musical equivalents of fluid projections on a wall. And the band members' dress is so totally 70s looking it just confuses me a bit more.

Despite the fact that all is sort of vague. The band very often simply does the right thing. Within the songs there are different melodies played by overdubbed guitars and a strong, often fuzzed up bass. The vocals remind me of Love regularly, which is a nice thing actually. The shouts in 'Melting All Over You' remind me of 'Dracula', the ZZ & the Maskers song from of 1964, while the song starts with a chord progression emulating Frijid Pink's rendition of 'House Of The Rising Sun'. So the vampire connotation in the bio accompanying the album rings true after all.

The land of Nod is a place for wanderers in exile. It lies east of Eden (John Steinbeck anyone?) and Cain went there to live after he killed his brother Abel out of jealousy. And here we have the songs from that land. If this is the music they play there, it may be the right time to visit.

In a song like 'All For Naught' things get to vague as far as I'm concerned. This is made up immediately in 'Land Of Nod'. The opening riff is lifted directly from Zappa's 'Trouble Every Day' and incorporated in a totally different song, showing Beechwood could play a show with The Black Angels after all. In the end the band is a little of everything and nothing as a whole. Impossible to pin down. That, again, is one of the attractive sides of this band.

It may be vague, but it certainly is nice to listen to every once in a while. Songs From The Land Of Nod are songs from a place of exile. No 10.000s of people are going to listen to this, but those that do will return to it again and again.

Wo.

You can listen to Songs From The Land Of Nod and buy the album here:

http://www.alive-records.com/artist/beechwood/

Listen to the WoNoBlog Playlist on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g

Daybreak Over Jackson Street. Steph Cameron

Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady van de oorspronkelijk uit het Canadese British Columbia afkomstige Steph Cameron haalde ik al weer drie jaar geleden bij toeval uit een jaarlijstje met de beste Canadese platen van 2014. (Lees hier verder: https://wonomagazine.blogspot.nl/2015/03/sad-eyed-lonesome-lady-steph-cameron.html)

Op haar debuut maakte Steph Cameron indruk met muziek zoals die in de hoogtijdagen van de folk scene in het New Yorkse Greenwich Village werd gemaakt door onder andere een nog jonge Bob Dylan en een al even jonge Joni Mitchell.
 
Waar het in de jaren zestig gemeengoed was om te vertrouwen op een akoestische gitaar en een stem, is dit tegenwoordig zeldzaam. Zelfs met wat eenvoudige software en een goedkope laptop kun je muziek rijkelijk versieren en de meeste muzikanten doen dat dan ook.
 
Het is aan Steph Cameron niet besteed. Ook op haar tweede plaat Daybreak Over Jackson Street vertrouwt de Canadese muzikante op de eenvoudige middelen die ze ook op haar in kleine kring bejubelde debuut gebruikte: een akoestische gitaar, een enkele keer een mondharmonica en natuurlijk haar stem.
 
Dat lijkt eenvoudig, maar dat is het zeker niet. Wanneer je als muzikant moet vertrouwen op eenvoudige middelen, stelt dit hoge eisen aan deze middelen. Ik ben er zeker van dat de meeste muzikanten van het moment genadeloos door de mand vallen wanneer ze het moeten doen met de middelen die Steph Cameron tot haar beschikking heeft, maar de muzikante uit Vancouver blijft ook dit keer met gemak overeind.
 
Het geluid van Steph Cameron wordt grotendeels bepaald door haar akoestische gitaar, maar het is een verrassend vol geluid. Het is ook een geluid dat intrigeert, want de akkoorden op Daybreak Over Jackson Street zijn soms onnavolgbaar en voorzien de songs op de plaat van veel dynamiek en kracht. De mondharmonica houdt Steph Cameron dit keer voornamelijk in haar zak, maar de incidentele keer dat de mondharmonica door het fraaie gitaarspel heen snijdt komt het aan.
 
Naast het bijzondere akoestische gitaarspel is er natuurlijk de stem van Steph Cameron. Het is een stem die herinneringen oproept aan de folkies van weleer, maar de stem van de Canadese muzikante heeft ook het aangename dat ook de stem van bijvoorbeeld Suzanne Vega kenmerkt of juist het expressieve van Dar Williams. Het is een stem die de songs op Daybreak Over Jackson Street voorziet van flink wat lading en emotie, wat nog eens wordt versterkt door de mooie, indringende en persoonlijke verhalen die Steph Cameron op haar tweede plaat vertelt.
 
In een tijd waarin rijke arrangementen en gloedvolle producties overheersen is het absoluut even wennen aan het uiterst sobere geluid waarmee Steph Cameron op de proppen komt, maar werkelijk iedere noot op Daybreak Over Jackson Street is raak en bovendien smeedt de singer-songwriter uit Vancouver op indrukwekkende wijze het verleden en het heden aan elkaar.
 
Bijna drie jaar geleden was ik behoorlijk onder de indruk van het debuut van Steph Cameron en dat ben ik nu weer, misschien nog wel meer dan drie jaar geleden zelfs, want Daybreak Over Jackson Street is een wonderschone plaat.

Erwin Zijleman

Je kunt Daybreak Over Jackson Street hier beluisteren:

https://soundcloud.com/pheromonerecordings/sets/steph-cameron-daybreak-over

Zie nu ook de WoNoBlog playlist op Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=gFKJ8QOiShyY6XIKt-SmrA

Echos. Joshua Hyslop

Some records are more delicate than is good for them. Echos is one of those records. Joshua Hyslop is a singer-songwriter in the tradition of Shane Alexander. Soft voiced, soft played, delicate, showing true vulnerability towards anyone listening and in danger of being talked off any podium in the world when the audience is not inclined to listen. Or, get people so silent you can hear a pin drop in between the music. There is no in between here.

Echos is the kind of record I have to grow in to. Each time I start to listen I want something to happen, until the flow of Echos overtakes me, conquers me and encapsulates me in its world. That soft and delicate world Joshua Hyslop created.

Press photo by Jesse Milns

Hyslop is from Vancouver in Canada. The town that also brought Nathalie Ramsay and Death Goldbloom/Tim Claridge (and of course The New Pornographers) to these pages. Especially Nathalie Ramsay's music fits in with what I am hearing here. The difference being that Echos is more professionally recorded, with all the string arrangements sounding behind the voice and acoustic guitar. Something that has been done since the 60s and in that way Echos sounds timeless. I could be a soft album from Donovan or Leonard Cohen, to name just two.

If there is one word befitting this album, it is dreaming. Hyslop dreams himself through this album. While he sings and plays his acoustic guitar with is eyes closed, a band of studio musicians do everything right around him without anyone needing any nudging. That is how I envision a song like 'Stand Your Ground' was recorded. A song by the way with obvious Bob Dylan hints. "May you stay forever young" is there in thought and melody. As I wrote, the dreaming remains there through the whole album.

Press phito by Jesse Milns

A 1001 and one singer-songwriters went before Joshua Hyslop and 2002 will follow him. So it is all about the quality of his songs. No matter how soft they may be, his songs are what carries Echos. An album full of empathy for the people around him. All the songs were written from stories he has heard. That empathy shows through the whole album. Shining through the lone sound of an harmonica in 'Long Way Down'. So if there is a main influence on Hyslop it is the most soft side of Neil Young. It is all about the songs.

It is the tougher sounding, haunted bluesy 'How You've Been' that comes as a surprise. His soft voice does not go with the haunted sound the two guitars produce and yet he softly bends his voice towards a haunted, almost whispered sound. Together they create the most suspenseful track on Echos. The guitars are full of them, echos. Great track.

So if you like a soft-voiced singer-songwriter who aims for writing beautiful songs and often succeeding Joshua Hyslop is your man (and Shane Alexander of course).

Wo.

You can listen to 'Home' here:

https://joshuahyslop.com/

Will I Wake. I Am Oak

I Am Oak has released a new single called Will I Wake. Yes, the guitar has been replaced by a keyboard as the centre of the sound. The sound, the mood as such is typical I Am Oak. The softest kind of musical magic around. That has not changed with changing instruments.

The reason I am writing on the song, a true assessment will come with the release of a new album, is to point you to the beautiful video, made by Thijs Kuijken himself and made up of over 2000 pictures. Well worth the view if you haven't seen it yet.

Wo.

Watch and listen to Will I wake here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54IJYPdPKAQ

Here's the link to our Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g